.Political Tidbits is the prestigious column of Belinda Olivares-Cunanan that ran for 25 continuous years in the op-ed page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the newspaper that she helped put up with its multi-awarded founder, the legendary Eugenia Duran-Apostol, in December 1985, just two months before the EDSA Revolution.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

The war vs. drugs---candid snapshot after the recent horrifying San Jose del Monte slayings---so brutal that provincial governor and mayor felt constrained to put up sums to flush out the killers. What can be done with drug addicts within ambit of the law?

One
of the more horrifying episodes in recent times in our drug-proliferated
country involves the slaying of two women and three children in San Jose del
Monte, Novaliches---a crime so dastardly that the governor of Bulacan and the mayor of the
town felt constrained to put up reward money that would lead to the arrest of the killers. While the father of the family, a security guard, was away,
apparently two drug-crazed men got into their shack in San Jose del
Monte and raped the women: first the elder woman, the children's grandmother, and then her daughter, the mother of the three children. Afterwards all
five of them were slain and the killers fled.

After
a few days the story emerged: the two assailants were high on drugs and committed the rapes
and murders. “It seemed like fun at that time,” was all one assailant could say
with a weird smile and glazed eyes. Of
course no one in his right or station mind would commit such horrible crimes,
but it demonstrates concretely what hideous drugs can do to transform people
into beasts. Co-conspirators here are
the widespread poverty and the lack of education and opportunities for
advancement of the very poor in society. Drugs become an escape mechanism.

It’s
also used by those in occupations that tax health but enable the users to stay
awake---such as bus-drivers especially for long distances, security guards and
apparently, judging from the huge catch in Marawi, rebels fearful of impending
death but who have to soldier on.

XXX

Soon
after reading about that episode, I had a conversation with an established
psychologist trained abroad and who has worked abroad in dealing with such societal
aberrations. He stressed several things. One is that the drug problem remains
so prevalent and widespread in our country despite the Duterte administration's campaign against it, cutting across social strata---it is as bad at the
very lowest rung of society, the balut-vendors, street-sweepers, jeepney
drivers and security guards--- as it is in the rarefied atmosphere of the
exclusive villages in Makati and Pasig. What’s sad about it, this psychologist
stressed, is that many prominent parents of such delinquent children are not even
aware of their involvement with drugs.

He narrated that in a visit to an affluent home where the father of
the family had asked for help for his drug-involved children , he also interviewed
the house staff about their wards, and the staff didn’t know if the kids had hidden forbidden stuff anywhere in the house. The psychologist took a look at a mirror
on the wall and sure enough there was neatly taped at the back---a small package with whitish
stuff, shabu. He stressed that parents have to befriend their children
and know where they hang out and with whom, but that he has been to homes where
a mixed crowd play mahjong all night in one level of the house, while the kids and friends smoke pot and eventually graduate to sterner stuff later.

This
psychologist also noted that with the crackdown on drugs in the market, prices
have gone up, and this means that supply is getting more critical as
the anti-drug campaign continues. On the other hand, let us hope that the police campaign against drugs---now secretly sold in little sachets that look
more like innocent salt or “Magic Sarap”--won’t proliferate.

Get
involved with your children’s lives, this psychologist advises, and get to know their friends, where they go and what they like to do. Spending more time with your
children has been a time-worn advice to parents since forever, but
never has it become more needed and more sensible than in our present day and age.

XXX

The
psychologist stressed how prevalent the drug menace has become in
Philippine society. Recall that tens of kilos of drugs were
seized by government soldiers in two successful captures of lairs of the
Maute-led rebel group in Marawi recently. What it underlines is that the rebels
have access to not only arms but drugs in our very porous Southern
backdoor---and it's very likely that the drug trade funds the invasion in the South; thus a double whammy. The supply of both contraband goods has to be sealed if we are to lick our drug problem as well as the illegal firearms, or reduce them at least to the minimum. The drugs found in huge quantities in several
places in Marawi indicate the ease with which prohibited stuff get to enter the
country---the Southern backdoor is only one entry point---and this has to be
sealed no matter how tough it is to do so. I had always wondered how come the
drug supply in Luzon has seemed inexhaustible---now we have a good idea.

It’s
easy enough to see how rebel soldiers have to take the prohibited drugs to
overcome fatigue and fears of impending attacks by the Armed Forces, where
they could die; thus; it would help tremendously if we could seal the Southern borders----despite the obvious difficulties such work would entail, given wide-open
entry to Mindanao via the high seas. We citizens also hope that the huge quantities of drugs seized from rebel forces in Marawi would be destroyed totally and not smuggled back into
the market.

XXX

Secondly,
the psychologist emphasized how ill-equipped our country is in combating the
drug menace---especially in facilities needed to house and reform the addicts, with staff trained for the urgent but very delicate work badly needed.
He narrated how some police officers have admitted candidly to him that while they did
try to turn the drug addicts over to the responsible suitable agencies, in some cases the cops seem
to have no choice but to shoot them down because they did not know of places equipped enough to handle drug rehabilitation. Wrongly handled, these addicts could only
worsen and infect other people with their affliction. With the lack of properly trained personnel and rehab centers, thus was born the ugly phenomenon of the
EJK denounced all over the world, and giving the Duterte administration an unnecessary black-eye internationally.

XXXThe
brutal truth is that the drug menace had become so pervasive and prevalent, stresses this psychologist, that society and the law-enforcement agencies were caught totally unprepared to
handle this problem of the drug-crazed people. It was ignored by the
Noynoy Aquino administration and it took Rodrigo Duterte to dramatize the
campaign---unfortunately in many cases, with EJK.

The
psychologist admitted that to in order give the government and society---hand in
hand---a fighting chance to win the battle against drugs, it would entail more
effort than what is being exerted now. I think of the successful battle being
waged by Argentine-born Fr. Luciano Felloni, now a Filipino citizen, of the Our Lady of Lourdes
Parish in Caloocan, with the cooperation of the city government. I can think of
what the Brazilian sisters are doing to help drug addicts in Masbate in the
Azenda di Esperanza---a rehab place without fences where youngsters are being successfully helped on to recovery. But those are very few examples. More has to be done to
win the ugly war vs. drugs.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Bel Cunanan

Belinda Olivares-Cunanan is a veteran journalist with 25 years of experience writing a political column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is a Rotary Club of Manila Hall of Fame awardee for journalism. She has also received the Distinguished Alumna Award from her elementary and high school alma mater, the College of the Holy Spirit, and the Alumni Association Professional Award for Journalism from the University of the Philippines (UP).